TUESDAY, 12 JULY 2022 04:53

BL Premium reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa is likely to announce an energy emergency as early as this week, as part of what he calls a “comprehensive set of actions” aimed at solving the country’s escalating power outages.

He is expected to address the nation within days to outline the plan after high-level meetings in the past two weeks. A senior presidency official said: “Government’s response must equal or be similar to that given to the Covid-19 pandemic and he wants those lessons to be referenced in this regard and all options explored and put on the table.” The immediate measures Ramaphosa is considering are expected to help get rid of red tape. Bureaucratic processes make it difficult to bring in new generation capacity, which is one of the standout proposals by the National Planning Commission (NPC). The new measures are an explicit acknowledgment by the government that the steps it has taken so far to stabilise supply — which include allowing private projects to apply for up to 100MW in electricity generation — are not enough. The announcement in the coming days will come as SA buckles under one of the worst power cuts since the country first became aware that Eskom’s power plants were falling apart in 2008, with power cuts lasting as long as six hours. Meanwhile, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said the power utility engaged with various ministers and the president at the weekend to find a solution that wopuld allow for more generation capacity to be added to the grid as soon as possible.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Denene Erasmus & Hajra Omarjee at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
• Read too, Ramaphosa to announce comprehensive action plan to tackle load-shedding, at Mining Weekly